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Coal City Courant

The definition of a champion is, “a person who has defeated or surpassed all rivals in a competition.” That’s the perfect description for the Coaler Scholastic Bowl team.
After coming in second at the annual Illinois Masonic Tournament in mid-February, the team dominated the Interstate Eight Conference tournament and then went on to earn the Regional title, the school’s first since the 2004-2005 season.

It is a public health issue many shy away from talking about, however, openly discussing the topic of suicide might just save a life.
Suicide impacts individuals of all ages and as local educators recently learned, its the second leading cause of death for those between the ages of 10 and 34, with approximately 5,900 youth lost nationally.
It’s estimated that for every suicide death roughly 45 attempts are made with another 250 people seriously considering suicide, according to Kelsey Hoeper, a suicide prevention educator with Elyssa’s Mission.

Rolando’s Furniture & Appliance and Hoffman Transportation were lauded by leaders in Grundy County last week.
A record crowd turned out for the Grundy Economic Development Council and the Grundy County Chamber of Commerce & Industry's Annual Dinner held Wednesday, March 13 at Chapin's East in Minooka.
More than 280 business and municipal leaders, and guests were in attendance to recognize the organizations' award winners and celebrate a successful year for the Grundy County business community.

Few people can claim to have camped out on a frozen lake and fewer yet have slept under the starts in below zero temperatures. Yet, that’s just what a handful of local scouts did to earn the right to call themselves “zero heroes.”
Five members of Boy Scout Troop 466—Tyler Jackson, Connor Patterson, Christian Micetich, Connor Super and Joseph Alabano—traveled with Scoutmaster John Cairns and troop mom Dr. Juli Micetich to the Northern Tier High Adventure Base this month for a long-weekend winter camp.

Coal City is one of a number of government entities involved in the Ottawa Area Enterprise Zone, so when changes to the boundaries are proposed the village gets a vote.
It was recently announced the Reichold Chemical facility in Goose Lake Township would be pulling out of the zone, thus making way for the village of Diamond to extend its enterprise zone in that direction to take in the planned Three Rivers Energy facility, a natural gas-fueled generating station to be constructed by Competitive Power Ventures (CPV).

Grundy Area Vocational Center's (GAVC) enrollment projections for the upcoming academic year are at an all time high.
“We are seeing GAVC numbers start to explode,” said Unit 1 Superintendent Dr. Kent Bugg, who reports enrollment is at 800 students, up about 150 students from two years ago.
He believes the increase is based on a combination of factors from ever increasing costs of higher education to an upswing in available trade jobs.
“I think parents are looking at other options for their kids, and that's a positive,” Bugg said.

Implementation of a community alert system was identified as a short-term goal in the village of Coal City's strategic plan, a goal the mayor says can now be scratched off the list.
“For the past couple of years, the village has been reviewing the possibility of utilizing a communications platform that would allow the village to contact a subset of village residents dependent upon the type of emergency that must be communicated,” said Matt Fritz, the town's administrator.

For nearly four years Coal City officials have been knocking on the doors of state lawmakers reminding them of the financial hardship a powerful tornado created when it torethrough the villae June 22, 2015.
At the time, state officials did not seek disaster relief funding from the federal government.
Illinois State Rep. David Welter (R-Morris) heard the town’s call and last week filed legislation seeking $2.6 million to cover debt related to the town's cleanup and recovery efforts.

A look at the Coal City Police Department’s crime statistics for 2018 shows a slight increase in crime. But department leaders say it’s nothing to be alarmed about.
Last year, the police department witnessed an increase of about 8 percent in overall call volume. End of year statistics indicate officers handled over 7,900 calls with about 2,400 of those being dispatched, meaning a large percentage of the calls were officer initiated.